The concept of personality finds its definition in many areas of life and sciences; even every person who does not have academic knowledge can formulate his own designation for this concept. But still, in order to correctly use any term, it is necessary to understand its meaning. The scientific definition looks like this: personality is a reflection of the volitional nature of a person, its social and personal roles, a stable system of certain human characteristics, expressed primarily in the social sphere of life. In popular speech, the definition can be formulated as follows: a person is a person who has a set of strong and persistent qualities, knows how to use them to achieve goals, is self-confident, knows how to use the experience gained, is able to control life and be responsible for his actions to society , and his actions always correspond to his words.
You can often hear that the concept of individual personality and individuality is used in the same context, since many consider them identical. In fact, this is not so, and you need to figure out what the difference is.
An individual is a representative of the human race, a unit of humanity. That is, a person who has not yet grown up and has not begun to socialize and try on any social roles and masks.
The concept of an individual and a personality are different to the extent that an individual may never become a person.
Individuality is a unique system of psychological characterological characteristics of a person (temperament, communication style, leading character traits, abilities, specificity of mental processes), which defines him as a unique person with a unique style of behavior. That is, those qualities that distinguish one person from another.
The concepts of personality and individuality are a little close, because both reflect a system of qualities, but only in a person these qualities are more persistent and speak less about its uniqueness than about the strength of character.
The concept of individual personality individuality has different meanings, but, in essence, they all make up the structure of a person.
The concepts of man, individual and personality are related as follows: a person is first born as an individual, then learning about the world and people, and having learned to perceive society, he acquires individuality, that is, he has already developed certain patterns of behavior. When a person grows up further, different situations and incidents happen to him and he begins to learn how to cope with them, look for ways to solve problems, control emotions and take responsibility for actions, having gone through all this, a person becomes an individual.
All people develop their personality at different ages. Some people, even at 45 years old, cannot be responsible for their actions, act consciously and independently, especially when someone is overly protective of them. They are afraid to leave their comfort zone. There is no need to rely on such a person in a serious matter. You can often hear from them “yes, I will definitely do this, I’ll even start today.” But neither tomorrow, nor even in a month they will do what they promised. Very often these people are lazy, cowardly, they may have either low self-esteem or high self-esteem.
It happens that a person becomes a person before he even leaves childhood. Basically, children deprived of care, who are left to the mercy of fate and have to survive, quickly become individuals, and for this they need to have a strong character and an iron will.
Here the concepts of personality and individuality intersect, because a person, having strongly expressed unique character traits acquired in the process of the problem of a dysfunctional childhood, quickly becomes a person, thereby strengthening these traits. It also happens when there are several children in a family, then the eldest child will also be distinguished by strong-willed, persistent qualities of character.
Definition of personality in different sciences
In sociology, the concept of personality is studied in the process of relationships between people, as well as as a separate element of the social system. In addition, sociology conducts the study of personality when it is still being formed, in the process of its formation and the acquisition by an individual of certain qualities characteristic only of him. In contrast to legal science, which looks at this as a completely ready-made and formed concept.
In jurisprudence, a person is understood as an individual who has certain rights, freedom of action and obligations as an ordinary person and as a citizen in general. This concept refers to the personality of a specific person who has a number of socially important qualities that manifest themselves in relationships with other people.
Concept and types of social roles
Social role is the fixation of a certain position occupied by one or another individual in the system of social relations.
There are 2 types of social relations in society: formal (conventional) – regulated by legislation and social status; informal (interpersonal) – regulated by feelings.
A social role is a socially necessary type of social activity and a way of behavior of an individual that bears the stamp of social evaluation.
The concept of social role was first proposed by American sociologists R. Linton and J. Mead. (in the 30s of the last century)
Each individual performs not one, but several social roles.
Types of social roles:
1. formal social roles (teacher, cook)
2. interpersonal social roles (friend, leader, enemy)
3. socio-demographic roles (mother, man, sister)
Basic approaches to studying personality
There are many different theories of personality in the social sciences. Among them, the following main approaches can be distinguished:
- Dialectical-materialistic approach , according to which the personality develops according to a dialectical process determined by the following factors: the origin of the individual, the society surrounding him, upbringing and self-education skills. From the very beginning, a person is considered a social being, his personality is formed in the process of interaction with society, that is, when a person interacts with the world around him in the process of his formation and self-awareness.
- Anthropological approach . In this approach, the concept of personality is perceived as the bearer of the characteristic properties of all humanity. Personality is equated with the individual. This approach compares the understanding of personality, person and individual. He ignores the fact that the social environment plays an important role in shaping personality.
- Normative approach . According to this approach, the concept of personality is associated with the acquisition of good qualities that relate to a person's consciousness and actions.
- Sociological approach . Its essence lies in the fact that every person is an individual, regardless of his socially significant characteristics. The concept of personality in this approach is considered as an object and products of relations with society.
- Personal approach . In contrast to the anthropological and sociological approach, this concept makes it possible to understand personality as an individual and unique organism independent of any factors.
- Biological-genetic approach . According to this approach, it is believed that such behavior in people is embedded in their genes. What can be considered primitive determinism. This approach neglects the importance of social conditions and cultural heritage in the formation of an individual in society.
- 1. Personality as a subject of social relations. Personality structure
- 2. Personality typology
- 3. Social statuses and roles. The role of the status-role structure of society
- 4. Socialization of the individual. Mechanisms and agents of socialization
LECTURE No. 5. Sociology of personality
1. Personality as a subject of social relations. Personality structure
One of the central areas of sociology is the study of personality.
This is due to a number of factors:
1) the individual is one of the main subjects of social relations;
2) the functioning of society is impossible without taking into account the needs and interests of the individual;
3) personality is an indicator of social development.
However, before we begin to consider personality, it is necessary to analyze such terms close to this concept as “person”, “individual”, “individuality”.
Human
- this is the highest level of living organisms on Earth, a subject of socio-economic activity and culture.
Individual
– an individual person as a representative of a family.
Individuality
- specific natural and social qualities that have developed in a person on the basis of inherited biological prerequisites, his social status and upbringing.
In the process of development of sociological knowledge, various approaches to the consideration and analysis of personality have been formed. Among them there are six main approaches
.
1. Dialectical-materialistic approach, according to which a person is initially a social being, and his formation as an individual occurs under the influence of four factors: the biology of the individual, his social environment, education and self-education skills.
2. An anthropological approach, in which a person is considered as a bearer of universal human properties, as a generic concept designating a representative of the human race, thus coinciding with the concepts of man and individual.
3. A normative approach, within which a person is defined as a social being with a number of positive qualities related to consciousness and activity.
4. Sociological approach, the essence of which is to understand each person as an individual, which is considered as a specific expression of the essence of the individual, a holistic embodiment and implementation in him of a system of socially significant features and qualities of a given society.
5. Personalistic approach, in which personality is a set of mental reactions of a person to the opinions of others about him, and the main mechanism of its formation is “I - perception”.
6. The biological-genetic approach assumes that human behavior is determined by his bioprogram.
Analyzing all of these approaches, we can give a systematic definition of personality, which should be based on the following principles:
1) the personality acts as both a subject and an object of both social and biological relations;
2) a person has a certain freedom to choose his behavior, which is determined by the discrepancy between social and biological conditions;
3) personality, being a biosocial phenomenon, combines both the traits of a person’s biological species and the social community in which it exists;
4) the behavior of an individual depends on his unique personal characteristics, through which social and personal life experience is refracted.
Taking into account all these principles, personality can be defined as an integral concept that characterizes a person as an object and subject of biosocial relations and unites in him what is universal, socially specific and individually unique.
The study and analysis of personality as a complex social phenomenon involves identifying its structure.
Based on the indicated characteristics of personality as a phenomenon, the following elements of its structure can be distinguished: biological, psychological and social.
Biological level
includes natural, common personality qualities (body structure, gender and age characteristics, temperament, etc.).
Psychological level
personality is united by its psychological characteristics (feelings, will, memory, thinking). Psychological characteristics are closely related to the heredity of the individual.
Finally, the social level of the individual is divided into three sublevels
:
1) proper sociological (motives of behavior, interests of the individual, life experience, goals), this sublevel is closely related to social consciousness, which is objective in relation to each person, acting as part of the social environment, as material for individual consciousness;
2) specific cultural (value and other attitudes, norms of behavior);
3) moral (morality, ethics).
When studying personality as a subject of social relations, sociologists pay special attention to the internal determinants of its social behavior.
Such determinants include, first of all, needs and interests.
Needs
– these are those forms of interaction with the world (material and spiritual), the need for which is determined by the characteristics of the reproduction and development of its biological, psychological, social certainty and which are realized and felt by a person in some form.
Interests
- These are the conscious needs of the individual. The needs and interests of an individual underlie his value attitude towards the world around him, the basis of his system of values and value orientations.
2. Personality typology
An important component of the sociological doctrine of personality is its typology.
Social personality type
- this is a way for a person to carry out various types of activities, a certain set of personality properties that expresses the individual’s belonging to a social group.
The concept of “social personality type” captures the reflection of a set of recurring social qualities of individuals belonging to any social community. As already indicated, personality is a complex multi-level phenomenon, which leads to the existence of various variations. Sociology has accumulated significant material on this problem. Let us dwell on the most developed and existing classifications.
The first attempt to create a personality classification system was made by E. Spranger
in 1914. The researcher developed
six “ideal types” of personality
based on their motivational orientation.
1) theoretical type – focus on obtaining new knowledge;
2) economic type - the basis of behavior is a pragmatic orientation;
3) social – desire for communication, focus on the social environment;
4) aesthetic – a tendency to impressions, experiences and self-expression;
5) political – the desire for dominance and distribution of social roles, as well as a tendency to submit;
6) religious – orientation towards the search for the highest meaning of life, communication with God.
At the same time, E. Spranger points out that all these types do not occur in their pure form, and in addition, there are many variations in the manifestation of the same type.
Another common classification in sociology is the division of personalities into basic and ideal. The basic personality is the personality most characteristic of certain social conditions.
Ideal type
- This is the person who best meets certain social conditions.
Thus, it is easy to see that in this case the basis of classification is the relationship between the individual and existing social conditions.
The difference between these personality structures is significant. The ideal, in principle, will never receive its final realization, but at any given moment it receives its embodiment in the basic type of personality.
However, it is easy to see that both of these types can also be divided into many subtypes, which may be based on other criteria.
Another classification is the typological system of E. Frome. The basis of his classification is the orientation of the individual in relations with society.
Thus, the basis of an unproductive personality is an unproductive orientation, that is, an inability to express oneself.
The basis of a productive personality is a productive orientation - the ability to change one’s environment and to express oneself.
However, the researcher himself notes that individuals with one type of orientation do not exist.
Typically, each personality combines both productive and unproductive orientations. The only question is which one dominates.
American sociologist D. Risman
proposed a division of all personality types, based on their orientation, into internal, external and “differently oriented.”
An internally oriented person has the ability to maintain a balance between the needs to achieve his life interests and the environment.
An externally oriented person is deprived of such an opportunity.
A “differently oriented” personality is able to respond to changes in the surrounding society.
Among the developments of domestic scientists in this area, one can note the identification of a new type of personality that emerged in the 30s. XX century under the influence of the socialist form of organization of public life.
This type is called the command-administrative personality type.
. This type of personality is characterized by such qualities as conformism, lack of autonomy, fear of conflicts, lack of focus on work results, lack of initiative, unwillingness to take risks, distrust of new things, hostility to change, intolerance to various deviations.
In modern conditions, under the influence of market reforms and democratic values, a new democratic type of personality is being formed in Russia.
3. Social statuses and roles. The role of the status-role structure of society
One of the most widespread theories of personality in modern sociology is the status-role concept.
Within the framework of this concept, a person is considered as an active subject who occupies a certain place in society and performs a set of functions in accordance with it.
The status-role concept was developed in the works of American sociologists J. Mead
and
R. Minton
.
The theoretical material of this theory was significantly enriched by the works of T. Parsons
.
The role theory of personality describes its social behavior with two main concepts: “social status” and “social role.”
So, according to this concept, each person occupies a certain place in society.
This place is determined by a number of social positions that imply the presence of certain rights and responsibilities.
It is these positions that are the social statuses of a person.
Thus, it is not difficult to see that each person has several social statuses at the same time.
However, one of the statuses is always the main or basic one. As a rule, the basic status expresses the position of a person.
Social status
– an integral indicator of the social status of an individual, social group, covering profession, qualifications, position, nature of the work performed, financial situation, political affiliation, business connections, age, marital status, etc.
In sociology, there is a classification of social statuses into prescribed and acquired.
Prescribed status
- this is a person’s position in society, occupied by him regardless of personal merit, but imposed by the social environment.
Most often, ascribed status reflects a person's innate qualities (race, gender, nationality, age).
Acquired status
- This is a position in society achieved by the person himself.
However, a person can also have a mixed status, which combines both types.
A striking example of mixed status is marriage.
In addition to these types, natural and professional-official statuses are also distinguished.
Natural status of personality
– a person’s place in the system of social relations, determined by the essential and relatively stable characteristics of a person.
Professional and official status
is a social indicator that records the social, economic and production position of a person in society. Thus, social status denotes the specific place that an individual occupies in a given social system.
The concept of “social role” is closely related to the concept of “social status”.
Social role
- this is a set of actions that a person occupying a given status in the social system must perform.
Moreover, each status involves performing not one, but several roles. A set of roles, the fulfillment of which is prescribed by one status, is called a role set. Obviously, the higher a person’s position in society, that is, the greater his social status, the more roles he performs.
Thus, the difference in the role set of the President of the state and the worker of a metal rolling plant is quite obvious. The systematization of social roles was first developed by Parsons, who identified five grounds on which a particular role can be classified:
1) emotionality
, that is, some roles involve a wide manifestation of emotionality, others, on the contrary, require its containment;
2) method of obtaining
– depending on the type of status, they can be prescribed or achieved by the person independently;
3) scale
– the scope of authority of one role is clearly established, while that of others is uncertain;
4) regulation
– some roles are strictly regulated, such as the role of a civil servant, some are blurred (the role of a man);
5) motivation
– performing a role for one’s own benefit or for the public good.
The implementation of a social role can also be viewed from several angles.
On the one hand, this is a role expectation, which is characterized by a certain behavior of a person depending on his status, which is expected by surrounding members of society.
On the other hand, this is role performance, which is characterized by a person’s real behavior, which he considers to be correlated with his status.
It should be noted that these two role aspects do not always coincide. Moreover, each of them plays a huge role in determining a person’s behavior, since social expectations have a strong impact on a person.
The normal structure of a social role usually has four elements:
1) description of the type of behavior corresponding to this role;
2) instructions (requirements) associated with this behavior;
3) assessment of the performance of the prescribed role;
4) sanctions - the social consequences of a particular action within the framework of the requirements of the social system. Social sanctions can be moral in nature, implemented directly by a social group through its behavior (contempt), or legal, political, or environmental.
It should be noted that any role is not a pure model of behavior. The main link between role expectations and role behavior is the character of the individual. That is, the behavior of a particular person does not fit into a pure scheme.
4. Socialization of the individual. Mechanisms and agents of socialization
As already indicated, personality is a biosocial phenomenon. And if biological characteristics are inherited, then social qualities are acquired by an individual in the process of socialization.
Socialization
can be defined as the process of an individual’s assimilation of patterns of behavior, social norms and values necessary for his successful functioning in a given society.
Thus, in the process of socialization, a person acquires the qualities necessary to fulfill social roles.
The process of socialization is two-way: on the one hand, it is society transferring its experience to the individual, and on the other hand, it is the process of assimilating social experience by the individual.
In sociological science, it is customary to distinguish two main types of socialization:
1) primary – the child’s assimilation of norms and values;
2) secondary – the assimilation of new norms and values by an adult.
Socialization is a set of agents and institutions that form, guide, stimulate or limit the formation of a person’s personality.
Agents of Socialization
are specific people responsible for teaching cultural norms and social values. Socialization institutions are institutions that influence the process of socialization and guide it.
Depending on the type of socialization, primary and secondary agents and institutions of socialization are considered.
Agents of primary socialization
– parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, other relatives, friends, teachers, leaders of youth groups. The term “primary” refers to everything that constitutes a person’s immediate and immediate environment.
Agents of secondary socialization
– representatives of the administration of a school, university, enterprise, army, police, church, media employees. The term “secondary” describes those who stand in the second echelon of influence, having a less important impact on a person.
Primary institutions of socialization
- this is a family, school, peer group, etc.
Secondary institutions
are the state, its bodies, universities, church, media, etc.
The socialization process consists of several stages and stages.
1. Stage of adaptation (birth - adolescence). At this stage, uncritical assimilation of social experience occurs; the main mechanism of socialization is imitation.
2. The emergence of a desire to distinguish oneself from others - the identification stage.
3. The stage of integration, which can proceed either successfully or unfavorably.
4. Labor stage. At this stage, social experience is reproduced and the environment is affected.
5. Post-labor stage (old age). This stage is characterized by the transfer of social experience to new generations.
At each stage of socialization, a person is influenced by certain factors, the ratio of which is different at different stages.
In general, five factors can be identified that influence the socialization process:
1) biological heredity;
2) physical environment;
3) culture;
4) group experience;
5) individual experience.
Each person's biological heritage provides the "raw materials" that are then transformed into personality characteristics in a variety of ways. It is thanks to the biological factor that there is a huge diversity of individuals.
The physical environment plays an important role in the formation of personality, since climate, natural resources and other natural indicators are of great importance.
The culture of each society also has a huge influence on the socialization process.
Every society develops one or more personality types that correspond to its culture.
Duboys called a personality, which has characteristics characteristic of a given society, modal. Modal personality is understood as the most common type of personality, which has some features inherent in the culture of society as a whole.
Group and personal experiences are also included in the socialization process.
Each person, according to C. Cooley, builds his “I” on the basis of the reactions he perceives of other people with whom he comes into contact.
Cooley identifies three stages in the formation of the mirror self: our perception of how we look at others; our perception of their opinion; our feelings about this opinion. Each personal experience is unique because it cannot be repeated exactly.
The picture of individual experience is complicated by the fact that the personality does not simply summarize it, but integrates it.
Thus, we can say that the process of socialization is influenced by two of the most important environments around a person: natural and social.
Due to the fact that the social environment is an objective condition of socialization, its constituent elements also have a certain influence on this process. Such elements of society are called agents of socialization; as already mentioned, agents of socialization are people and institutions associated with it and responsible for its results.
The main agents of socialization are the family, various types of communities (collectives, ethnic groups, nationalities, classes, social strata), society as a whole - everything that includes and surrounds a person.
Each sphere of social life (material and spiritual) participates in the process of socialization - targeted and undirected education.
So, the most intensive process of socialization occurs in childhood and adolescence.
By the time a person reaches his professional and official status, the socialization process, as a rule, reaches a certain completion.
The socialization of adults is different in that it is mainly a change in external behavior (the socialization of children is the formation of value orientations); adults are able to evaluate norms (and children only assimilate them). Adult socialization aims to help a person master certain skills. For example, mastering a new social role after retirement, changing profession or social status.
Another point of view on the socialization of adults is that adults gradually abandon naive children's ideas (for example, about the unshakability of authorities, about absolute justice, etc.), from the idea that there is only white and black.
An important process of socialization is the process of identification.
Identification
- this is the process of assimilation by an individual of the norms, values and qualities of the social group to which he belongs or would like to belong.
Table of contents
Personality structure
When studying and analyzing personality as a complex social phenomenon of society, it is important to highlight its structure, which is based on the following elements:
- biological level : it includes natural qualities inherent to all humanity (anatomical structure of the body, gender, character, etc.);
- psychological level : includes the psychological state of the individual such as the manifestation of feelings, freedom of choice, memories, way of thinking. Such features are closely related to hereditary personality traits;
- The social level is usually divided into the following sublevels:
- The sociological proper determines a person’s behavior in society, as well as his personal interests and pursued goals.
- Cultural-specific shows personal values, as well as behavioral factors corresponding to the norms of society.
- The moral sublevel demonstrates the moral qualities of a person, which he is guided by in any of his choices.
Characteristics of a social role
The main characteristics of a social role are highlighted by the American sociologist T. Parsons: scale, method of obtaining, emotionality, formalization, motivation. The scope of the role depends on the range of interpersonal relationships. The larger the range, the larger the scale. For example, the social roles of spouses have a very large scale, since the widest range of relationships is established between husband and wife.
The way a role is acquired depends on how inevitable the role is for the person. Thus, the roles of a young man, an old man, a man, a woman are automatically determined by the age and gender of a person and do not require special efforts to acquire them.
Other roles are achieved or even won during the course of a person's life and as a result of special efforts.
Social roles differ significantly in their level of emotionality. Each role carries within itself certain possibilities for the emotional manifestation of its subject.
Formalization as a descriptive characteristic of a social role is determined by the specifics of interpersonal relationships of the bearer of this role. Some roles involve the establishment of only formal relationships between people with strict regulation of rules of behavior; others are only informal; still others may combine both formal and informal relationships.
Motivation depends on the needs and motives of a person.
Different roles are driven by different motives. Parents, caring for the well-being of their child, are guided primarily by a feeling of love and care; the leader works for the sake of the cause, etc.
All social roles are subject to public assessment (not the individual, but the type of activity) and are associated with rights and responsibilities. If there is harmony of rights and responsibilities, it means that a person has correctly learned his social role.
The influence of social role on personality development
The influence of social role on personality development is great.
Personality development is facilitated by its interaction with persons playing a range of roles, as well as by its participation in the largest possible role repertoire. The more social roles an individual is able to reproduce, the more adapted to life he is. The process of personality development often acts as the dynamics of mastering social roles.
Role conflicts
Role conflict is a situation in which an individual with a certain status is faced with incompatible expectations.
The situation of role conflict is caused by the fact that the individual is unable to fulfill the requirements of the role.
In role theories, it is customary to distinguish between two types of conflicts: inter-role and intra-role.
Types
In modern science, it is customary to distinguish the following social personality types from the point of view of value orientations inherent in individuals:
- Traditionalists . For them, law-abidingness, diligence, discipline and responsibility come first. Similar traits are observed against the background of a lack of desire for self-realization and independence.
- Idealists . They are the exact opposite of traditionalists. They strive to prove themselves and act in accordance with their own attitudes and principles. They do not recognize authorities and traditional views on issues.
- Frustrated type . These people do not feel involved in public life or in making important public decisions. They are characterized by low self-esteem, a constant state of depression and passivity.
- Realists .
Such individuals competently combine the desire for self-realization with an awareness of a sense of duty. They are able to rationally approach problems and objectively assess the proposed circumstances. - Hedonistic materialists. They are typical consumers who strive for immediate pleasures without thinking about the future. Their own desires always come first for them.
Personality types:
Man as a biological and social being
To study the issue of biological or social dominance in humans, there are two directions: panbiologism
, insisting on the biological uniqueness of each organism (set of genes, character, temperament, formation of appearance and physical characteristics) and
pansociology
, advocating biological equality and putting social development to the fore (manifested through the influence of upbringing, religion, education, formation of talents on a person, personal qualities and perception of the world).
According to philosophical teachings, man is a spiritualized physicality and, to the same extent, a body endowed with soul and mind. According to this, man is the earthly embodiment of the spirit, forced to study, work and satisfy physical needs for survival in nature and society.
At the same time, a person does not lose his individuality and character traits that make him a separate person from society. Thus, man is a unique entity that contains both the earthly and the spiritual in equal measure.
